The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Users of client devices, such as printers, scanners, multi-function peripherals (MFPs), Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Appliances, projectors, etc., often have questions about the operation of these devices. For example, users may have questions about particular features or the meaning of error codes. Some of these devices allow a user to use the control panel of the device to access a user manual or frequently asked questions (FAQ) document to obtain an answer to a question or to obtain information about a feature of the device. These devices may also allow a user to enter a query to access information pertaining to a particular device. Queries may range from accessing user manuals and FAQs, to entering support tickets for product defects, querying available products based on user need, and querying contact information for an appropriate support person who can assist the user.
One of the issues with these approaches is that the information provided to user is often static and not updated. For example, user manuals and FAQs may be prepared prior to a product release and may rarely be updated, even when the information is available via the Internet. Therefore information provided may be outdated and may not match what the user in trying to query. The user may then be forced to manually query multiple resources or contact a general support person in order to figure out which resources will sufficiently assist the user. Manual user queries take valuable time away from the user experience and may frustrate the user when trying to solve an issue. Additionally, contacting a general support person may lead to unnecessary generation of support tickets and involve multiple layers of support in order to route the question or problem to the correct destination. Product queries that are based upon static information may also lead to the user receiving outdated product information that may result in the user purchasing the incorrect product for their needs. Retailers of products are also negatively impacted as the retailers may lose revenue if incorrect or outdated products are offered to users rather than offering the appropriate products to users.